Buoyant game-playing devices are well known in the prior art. Numerous games, and apparatuses for use in playing them, are made and have been made over the years for use by persons while swimming in or standing adjacent to a swimming pool.
Water polo includes two goals, one at each end of a pool. Each of two opposing teams of swimmers tries to throw a ball past the swimmers of the opposing team and into the opposing team's goal. In this game, the goals are fixedly attached to the solid walls at each end of the pool.
Devices for use in toss games, wherein a target or basket is floated in the pool and objects such as basketballs, disks or rings, are thrown at or into the target or basket, are shown in numerous prior art patents, such as 3134594, 3350097, 3403907, 3430958, 3469844, 3652090, 3656749, 3778060, 3895801, 3989250, 5318307, 5421585, 5620185, 6030300, and 6173957. Each of these devices is useful for playing just one game, and each is meant to be used in only one orientation.
A floating apparatus for playing both ring toss and basketball is manufactured under the Trademark “Six Flags” and called “Ring Toss 'N Hoops”, which is used in only one orientation for playing either game. This apparatus floats entirely above the water surface and is found to be both unstable and prone to unintentional lateral movement during play.
No apparatuses are known to the inventor that are adapted for re-orientation to enable the playing of more than one game while maximizing the apparatus's stability and minimizing its inadvertent lateral movement.
Being that such prior art floating game devices have their useful portions above the water surface, it is additionally a common feature that they are constructed of floating components. Such devices therefore tend to be light and unstable. Not only are they prone to being tipped over during rough play, but also they tend to move laterally around the swimming area during even casual play. One common means for overcoming this deficiency is the use of an anchoring device. But such anchoring devices as are common in the prior art add complexity and cost to the device, and create a safety hazard due to the connecting lines they require.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved floating game-playing apparatus that may be used to play more than one game.
It is a further object to provide such an apparatus that is more stable than floating game-playing apparatuses of the prior art.
It is a further object to provide such an apparatus that may be used effectively without an anchoring means.
It is a further object to provide a such an apparatus for use in a swimming pool or swimming area to allow a user to play either basketball or ring toss.